Manchester United need to make a big statement and sign Diego Costa or Ander Herrera this January

Mark Lawrenson takes a look at what the Premier League's top clubs should have as their New Year's resolutions

Diego Costa: A big money move would remind everyone how big a club Man United is (Photo: Getty Images)

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The New Year is now just a day or so away, so we asked our columnist Mark Lawrenson to cast his eye over the clubs eyeing the top seven positions in the Premier League and come up with New Year's resolutions for them.

Manchester City

Their resolution must surely be to give someone a chance at the Etihad!

Seriously, they have been brilliantly ruthless in front of his own fans beating the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton in sensational style.

What they have to do is realise you have to earn the right to play away from home. Because if they can reproduce their outstanding form at home on the road nobody will beat them to the title. The trouble is, there is an arrogance about them.

Almost a refusal to accept you have to roll your sleeves up and sometimes win ugly.

They had that gritty quality on their travels a couple of seasons ago when they won it. They need that again.

I still think they need another centre-half. That’s all – to give them that depth. Sort that, and their away form, and they are home and dry.

Chelsea

Somehow they are sitting in among the leaders without really playing well in more than a couple of games this season. They did well yesterday and turned it on against Hull and West Ham. Apart from that they have made it in there by stealth.

If Chelsea really are serious about winning the league as well as the Champions League, they have to go out and get a new striker.

Jose Mourinho: Can he lead Chelsea to another league title? (Photo: Action Images)

Liverpool’s Luis Suarez has scored around three times the number of goals Samuel Eto’o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres have managed between them.

The Blues need to spend big to bring in a real top-quality goalscorer.

Whether it is Radamel Falcao at Monaco, Wayne Rooney at Manchester United – or maybe even Robin van Persie – Chelsea need that kind of quality up front.

Manchester United

David Moyes knows he has to be more decisive and United more ruthless.

He has to decide on the players that are coming to an end and make plans to move them on, as Fergie would have done. He then has to decide on the players he wants in to replace them.

Moyes needs four or five and the chief executive Ed Woodward needs to operate in a way that reminds English – and possibly even European – football about just how big Manchester United are.

United don’t get snubbed by players. Players consider it an honour to even be linked with a move to Old Trafford.

If they can’t get the players they want in January, at least get the players they want to agree to come ahead of a summer transfer.

Look at the free-scoring Atletico Madrid star Diego Costa. What a statement he would be if United were to get him ahead of the likes of Chelsea or Liverpool, or Ander Herrera of Athletic Bilbao.

You bring in that type of stellar signing with their best years ahead of them, and you are back to doing what United are best at in the transfer market – snapping up the top talent around.

United also need to sort the Van Persie situation. Whatever he may say publicly, he is clearly unsettled.

They need to find out whether he really does want to go or not once and for all.

Tottenham

Spurs' resolution has to be to intimidate more teams coming to White Hart Lane.

Their home record is one of the worst among the sides in the top half of the table.

I would get the wide boys to make the pitch bigger and get them going outside the full-backs more often. It helps the strikers and makes it so difficult to defend against.

I wouldn’t bring in another striker in January because they have got the quality.

What they need is to give them a better supply line and make themselves, as a team, less predictable.

I can see Tottenham going on a good run. They’ve got goals in them, got the quality, and you can see the confidence coming back, too.

Liverpool

What a season they have had against all the odds.

Brendan Rodgers’ resolution has to be to ensure his side do not suffer the kind of slip-ups that have prevented an excellent first half of the season from being even better.

I’m talking abut Liverpool’s failure to beat a Newcastle side with 10 men, their shock defeat at Hull, recovering from a goal down at Swansea to take the lead, only to be pegged back.

Luis Suarez: How far can his goals take Liverpool this season? (Photo: Clive Brunskill)

They didn’t have Luis Suarez in that game. He was still serving his ban. But since his return he has been incredible.

His resolution should be to rip up the record books and maintain his magnificent form.

Another of Rodgers’ resolutions should be to strengthen the squad but to make sure that he doesn’t upset the balance of a team whose spirit is unbelievable.

Everton

Roberto Martinez has to keep his talented squad free from injuries.

Everton will need to dip into the market for replacements for the likes of Arouna Kone and Darron Gibson.

But if Martinez can attract more of the type of player he has done so well to get already, Everton will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.